Irish and International Affairs, ranting, waffle and opinions.
The bastard offspring of the Irish Times Letters Page.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Love Ulster or hate it

I am ashamed.

Ashamed to be Irish today.

On Saturday, democracy in Ireland was suspended for several hours, as peaceful marchers were denied their right to express their opinion. And a mob of hard line republicans and Dublin scumbags (of which there is an epidemic level in our fair city) went on the rampage, preventing any semblance of law and order across large parts of the city.

I'm getting more and more annoyed as I type this.

Where to begin?

Well obviously blame lies with Republican Sinn Fein for apparently organising this little riot. I think it's about time that the party itself was ruled to be an illegal organisation, because clearly they have no interest in the freedom and inalienable rights of othjer people, or indeed their right to disagree. They need to be raided and closed down as a political party in Ireland. That may seem a little extreme, but what happened on the weekend is, I think, sufficient evidence that extreme action is necessary.

The other Sinn Fein (the ones with apparently no involvement in this fracas) needs to be told quite frankly by both governments that there will be no progress with regards to the North until the IMC have stated that there is not criminality associated with the IRA. SF needs to sign up policing in Northern Ireland and make a declaration in the Republic that they fully recognise the Irish Defence Forces and Oireachtas as the legitimate army and parliament of Ireland. The Dail needs to introduce an oath of affirmation to be taken by all Deputies in which they swear to recognise and uphold the Constitution.Until all that is done, not one iota of progress should be promised by either Merrion St or Downing St.

There needs to be a full investigation of the Garda response to the threat of disorder on Saturday. While I cannot applaud enough the bravery of the guards on the beat that day, it would appear that people further up the chain of command seriously underestimated the risks that the parade would bring with it, and did not allocate sufficient resources.

There needs to be a massive increase in the number of Gardai on the streets in Dublin during the day and night time. The scumbags responsible for this destruction and wanton criminality are a small percentage of the thousands of knackers that shuffle around our streets day after day. They need watching properly.

The bastards who have so far been charged with various offences need to be tried by the Special Criminal Court, because I don't trust juries to convict them. And we need harsh prison sentences to be imposed to dissuade anyone else from ever trying this again. The Irish state is a mature, 80 year old democracy..this should not be tolerated, and should not be allowed to go unpunished.

As for the 90th Anniversary commemoration of the 1916 Rising..I don't think now is the time to be going about that. Whether it should be called off is a topic for another day, methinks.